Speech Sounds

This one won a Hugo as well, and it is outright fantastic. There's a caveat though: it really should have been a novel. The basic idea is so good, that it deserves better than just 19 pages. The story is set 3 years after a pandemic swept through humanity. The disease does a few things, like impairing one's speech, or one's comprehension of speech, or one's ability to read & write. The net result is that verbal communication isn't possible anymore. What follows is a dystopian breakdown.

It's a clever twist on a post-apocalyptic zombie story, and one that focuses on one character in one short instance of her life. In a way, it's a cop out: the ramifications of such a disease are huge, and to write a realistic, well researched novel on the matter is a daunting task indeed. It would have been the social sciences version of Seveneves. Maybe Stephenson can pick up the baton?

For a write-up of each story in Butler's Bloodchild and Other Stories collection, please visit Weighing A Pig...